FACT FOOD #86

In 1790, Goethe published “Versuch die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu erklären”, a work on the metamorphosis of plants. In that work, he combined two Greek roots, morph meaning shape, and ology meaning science,to create a word for the study of shape and structure. The word, ‘morphology’, had entered English by 1830 courtesy of Goethe.